


Dance With Me

by bar2d2s



Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: F/M, Modern AU, diner au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-12 02:50:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3340838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bar2d2s/pseuds/bar2d2s
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Working the night shift at a small-town diner can be boring. Luckily, Sunny has a regular that keeps his Friday nights very interesting indeed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance With Me

After over two years of working at the diner, Sunny’s Friday night routine had finally started to take on a visible pattern. Wipe down the main counter, then the side tables. Fold exactly fifty sets of silverware. Tend to the twenty or so people who came in between eight and ten. Wait for  _her_.

It had been over ten months since she first appeared late one Friday night, in a whirl of skirts and visible distress. At the time, she’d been with a girl too physically similar to be anything but her sister, whose face was streaked with mascara and dried tear tracks.

"Just two coffees, please." She’d asked, walking up to the counter, as her sister took a seat in a booth near the back, her face in her hands. "One sugarless, with milk, one very sweet." Leaning forward, she placed her hands on the counter, near his. "And maybe in a little bit, a piece of pie." She whispered, glancing behind her.

He’d tried not to eavesdrop as he brought them their coffee, but he caught snippets of whispers anyway.

"Can’t believe-"

"Marianne-"

"Our wedding is,  _was_  tomorrow-“

"Marianne, you’re gonna hurt yourself-"

"He was  _cheating_  on me!”

"So how about that pie?" The girl called, panic in her voice. Her sister was chewing on her lip, and it looked painful. Sunny grabbed a couple of plates, not worrying about presentation as he slammed a couple of pieces of blueberry pie on them and rushed over. She smiled at him, her eyes grateful.

"Look, Marianne! Pie! Pie for your mouth- oh, please stop chewing on your lip like that." Her sister, Marianne, who’d looked so sad when she came in, stared down at her pie like it had struck her. Then she began an angry rant about her now ex-fiance, and Sunny took that as his cue to retreat back behind the counter. Pare stuck his head out of the order window, to see what the fuss was.

"None of our business, man." Sunny muttered to him, and the larger man shrugged, going back to whatever it was he did when the kitchen was slow.

Marianne eventually calmed down, but not before destroying the two pieces of pie and ordering a third. When they paid, he noticed that the girl tipped  _very_  generously, and smiled at him again before they walked out.

He’d have written the incident off as one of those missed connections he was always hearing about, but then the very next Friday, around 10:30, she was back. She was with an older man this time, who appeared to be her father.

"Could I get a burger, well done, and some onion rings? Ooh, and a strawberry milk shake?" The sound of her voice caused his stomach to flip inside of him, and he nodded, relaying the order back to Pare, along with a whisper.

” _It’s her._ " Pare stuck his head out, looking around until he spotted her and letting out a low whistle.

"Nice." Sunny balled up a napkin and threw it at him, but he ducked back into the kitchen just in time.

When bringing the girl her food this time around, he pretended not to listen to her conversation when really, he was hanging on every word.

"Daddy, I’m serious. If Roland keeps coming around, Marianne is gonna kill him. You need to tell him to go away." Her father’s face was the picture of distress.

"But they need to at least  _talk_  about what happened! We had to call off the wedding and everything-” She made a little frustrated noise, raising her voice enough that he could hear it from the counter without strain.

” _No_ , they  _don’t_  need to talk! He was cheating on her! There’s nothing he could say to make her take him back!” And then her father said it, the words he’d been waiting all night to hear.

"Dawn, please be reasonable-"  _Dawn_. He sighed to himself, starting to dry out the load of cups Pare had brought from the kitchen when the near-yelling had started. A name as pretty as she was.

"No, daddy! I stand with Marianne on this. Roland was a bad fiance, possibly a bad boyfriend, and he definitely would have been a bad husband. Cheaters never change." She sat back, crossing her arms over her chest. "He hurt her bad, and I wouldn’t stop her from beating his stupid face in, if she got her hands on him. You gotta tell him to stop coming by the house." Her father opened his mouth. 

” _And_  the shop. And Marianne’s favorite book store, and the bar, and…just tell him to stop following her, or we’re  _both_  going to the cops about it.” Sunny winced. This Roland guy sounded like a real creep. Dawn and Marianne didn’t deserve trouble like him. They both seemed too sweet.

Dawn was the one to pay, again, even though she’d eaten the least of the two of them. She still tipped well, and smiled at him. Sunny thought he may have smiled back, or maybe he just gave her a deer in headlights look. Either way, it made her giggle, and that brought color to his cheeks.

"She is  _too_  fine.” He groaned, slumping over the counter after they left.

"Yup." Pare agreed, finishing off her leftover onion rings. Sunny made a face.

"Man, that’s nasty. Why do you always do that? You know you’re allowed to make yourself stuff if you’re hungry." Pare shrugged, clearing the rest of the table and motioned for Sunny to toss him a rag. "So…think I’d have a chance?"

"With her?" Pare laughed, deep and booming. "Maybe if you were taller."

He knew it was revenge for the food crack, but it still stung.

After that, she began to show up every Friday night like clockwork, between ten and eleven. Sometimes she was with her sister, sometimes her father, sometimes both. Sometimes she had a date, and every little giggle she let out was like a knife in his heart.

That wasn’t fair to her, though. Here he was obsessing over her, living for Friday night, and she didn’t even know his name.

Then one night, she came in alone.

She ordered a milkshake and some onion rings, as usual, but instead of going to a booth, she sat at the counter. It was earlier than normal, so there were a couple of other people still dining in, and he had to split his attention between them.

Eventually, the other diners paid and left, but Dawn remained.

"Can I get you anything else?" He’d never had to ask that before. She swirled her straw around in her milkshake, sighing. "The check?" She nodded, laying out some money, her shoulders still sagging. "…maybe someone to talk to?" Her eyes flicked up, meeting his. She smiled.

"Yeah, that’d be nice."

Pulling off his apron, Sunny crossed around the counter, hopping up on the stool next to her. “Okay, shoot.”

"My sister’s engaged again." She sighed, and without even meaning to, he blurted out,

"Not to the guy that cheated on her?!" Dawn’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Er, sorry. You two were pretty loud that first night." She began to laugh, palming her face.

"No, no. I’m just surprised you remembered. But no, not to Roland. To this tattoo artist she met. They bonded over their shared love of punching Roland in his stupid face, started dating, and tonight he popped the question." Her face fell. "And I’m happy for her, I really am, but this is the second time someone’s wanted to be with her forever, though Bog’s more sincere about it than Roland was, and I can’t stop meeting Mr. Wrong." 

There was a cough from behind the counter, and they both looked up. Pare waved. Dawn started giggling again, and Sunny made a face at him. “That’s Pare, the eternal eavesdropper. Oh, and I’m-“

"Sunny." Dawn finished. His eyes widened, as did her smile. "It’s on your name tag."  _Oh_. Right. He cleared his throat, red traveling up his face.

"Yeah, well. Well! Maybe you’re just going about it wrong? I mean, was Marianne even  _looking_  for someone new when she met this guy?” Dawn frowned, thoughtful.

"No…she was pretty anti-love, actually. Like, not outright mean to people, but really cold, especially when someone would try and flirt with her at work, or buy her a drink or something. She slammed a pot down on this guy’s hand when he wouldn’t stop trying for her number." She giggled at the memory. "It was actually kind of funny. She said, um. What did she say? Oh! ‘I’m not a flower, so stop trying to pick me out’. She’s so clever." Dawn sighed again, tapping her finger on her empty glass. "I just giggle and say whatever pops into my head around guys. It makes me sound so spacey."

"You seem to be doing okay right now." Sunny pointed out, and the smile she sent his way sent sparks up his spine.

"Yeah! Yeah, I guess you’re right. I just need to be comfortable." She spun her stool around and jumped up, dress flouncing as she went. "I’ve always wondered, does that thing work?"

Ages ago, the boss had put in a CD jukebox. Sunny had tried to warn him off it, telling him about how even the more popular digital models were failing, but he insisted that it would be just fine. As it was, the ancient thing sat in the corner like a monolith, untouched, but regularly dusted. “You’d be the first customer to try it. No one’s ever tried to use it before. Well, aside from me. Gotta have something fun to spice up after-close cleaning.”

His shoulder shrug turned into a confident roll, and her smile went fond. “Okay then, maestro, show me how it’s done.”

Their height difference was more apparent when they were next to each other, leaning over the jukebox to make a selection. “There’s a number code that you can put in for free plays, don’t tell anyone.” He winked at her, then picked out one of his favorite songs. It had a mid-tempo beat, and it flowed over them. Dawn clapped her hands excitedly.

"Oh, I  _love_  this song! It’s just what I needed!” She swayed in place, humming to herself for a moment, then reached down to take his hand. “Wanna dance?”

He couldn’t say yes fast enough.

They danced around the diner to Marley, laughing whenever the distance caused one of them to stumble. The song eventually ended, and he put on another, and another, until it was past midnight and they’d gone through a quarter of the jukebox. Amazingly, no one had come in after Dawn to interrupt them, and even Pare had cleaned up the kitchen and left at midnight, like he usually did.

Dawn was all smiles, and his heart was clenching it his chest.

"So," He began, casual as ever. "Same time next Friday? Bring the new fiance, Pare and I can help you intimidate him, let him know who he’ll have to deal with if he breaks your sister’s heart." She laughed, smacking him on the shoulder.

"I don’t think Bog’ll be very intimidated, he’s taller than the three of us put together. Anyway." She crossed her arms over her chest, holding onto her elbows nervously. "I was thinking, maybe…when do you get off tomorrow? Too late to see a movie?"

If someone had told him that his heart had launched itself out of his chest, beat him around the head, then dove back down his throat, he’d have believed them. “Yeah, I’m on the night shift again. But I’ve got Sunday off, if you’re not doing anything then?” Her face had fallen, but it brightened again quickly enough.

"The shop’s closed on Sunday, so I’m free all day! I mean, I gotta do some laundry, but aside from that, no plans at all. So," She smiled shyly. "Movie? Or we could go to the park, it’s supposed to be warm out, and I’m not a bad cook. Well, I mean, I can bake. Kind of." She was tripping over her words, and he really wasn’t any better off. He took her hand again, squeezing it.

"I think the park sounds like a great idea. You can tell me what it’s like working for a florist." Her eyebrows shot up, and he laughed. "Hey, I’m good at context clues. Besides, you always smell like flowers." He froze. _Way to go, you just admitted to smelling her. Gonna tell her about all the times Pare ate her onion rings, too, creep?_

But Dawn didn’t seem freaked out, she just sighed, making a show of brushing off the sleeves of her dress. “It’s my worshipers, they just keep throwing rose petals at me as I walk by. It’s  _so_  annoying.”

They stared at each other a moment, then burst into laughter. Dawn gathered her bag and jacket from the counter, turning to leave. 

"I’ll meet you here on Sunday? I don’t live too far, but I also don’t have a car, so." She shrugged. "This place is closer to the park than my house."

"You walked here tonight?! It’s, it’s really late, though. I mean, I don’t have a car either, but I could give you a ride home on my-" He cringed. "My scooter." He waited for the laughter to come, as it always did. Cool guys rode motorcycles, not electric scooters.

Dawn  _did_  laugh, but it wasn’t cruel. “I can walk. Dad’s going to be on my case enough, coming home this late. But Sunday, I fully expect a ride home.” She smiled, tapping him on the nose. “In fact, I look forward to it.”

As an afterthought, she grabbed the paper place mat she’d been using and scrawled her number on the corner, tearing it off and shoving it into his hands. “Call me? We can make real plans in the morning.”

He walked her out, watching until she rounded the corner before going in and closing up. He didn’t even bother with the jukebox this time, singing to himself, dancing around the chairs he was putting up, and just generally shaking out his nervous energy. 

She’d asked him out.  _She’d_  asked  _him_  out. The smile on his face was so wide it hurt. When he finally locked up and headed home, the scrap of paper tucked into his inside coat pocket, he hadn’t stopped.

Their park date turned out wonderfully, and it lead to many more. Even though he saw her nearly every day, he still lived for Friday nights. He’d clean the tables, dry the cups, wrap the cutlery, and eyeball the clock as often as possible. Because at 10:30, he had a dancing date with an angel, and he wouldn’t miss it for the world.


End file.
